NJ Transit is testing out a $500M safety system with you on board

NJ Transit received a green light to start testing a federally mandated safety system on trains carrying passengers, as it strives to meet a deadline to have the system certified and running by Dec. 31.

Passengers on the Morris & Essex line between Denville and Summit will be the first to ride trains with Positive Train Control, NJ Transit officials said in a release Tuesday. The Federal Railroad Administration approved the Revenue Service Demonstration testing.

PTC is a safety system that uses computers, trackside transponders and two-way radio systems to determine if a train operator is obeying speed limits and signals, and to stop the train if they are not. NJ Transit’s current Automatic Train Control safety system will remain active during PTC testing on trains, officials said.

“Customers will not experience anything different on the RSD trains,” said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesman.

Up to now, NJ Transit was one of 12 railroads that hasn’t tested PTC in passenger service yet, according to the FRA. NJ Transit has 317 miles of track to be tested, second to the Long Island Rail Road which has the most 321 miles, of which, 16 miles are in revenue service testing, according to the FRA.

So far, all PTC testing has been done on trains that weren’t carrying passengers. NJ Transit had to pass FRA tests of its PTC systems and equipment inspections to be allowed to conduct revenue testing, according to a Feb. 14 approval letter from the federal agency. NJ Transit had to conduct 10 runs without system failures or anomalies before moving to the step, according to the letter.

To complete revenue testing, NJ Transit has to complete a minimum of 384 consecutive runs on the M&E between Denville and Summit without a critical anomaly and make monthly reports, with documentation, to the FRA.

The $500 million PTC system, must be certified and operating by Dec. 31 or rail service could be shut down. If trains continue to run, the agency could be fined $27,000 a day. NJ Transit has spent $339 million on PTC so far, officials said.

NJ Transit’s current Automatic Train Control safety system will remain active during PTC testing on trains and will not be affected by the testing, officials said.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after officials told NJ Transit’s board on Wednesday that a software problem, that could have pushed testing back by five months, had been resolved and the agency only lost four months. That testing was scheduled to start in November.

“Entering the RSD (revenue service demonstration) phase of PTC is a major milestone and a testament to the incredible work by our employees working around the clock with our contractors to ensure this important safety technology implementation remains on schedule,” said Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit President and CEO.

The delay reduced the time NJ Transit has to test PTC hardware and software. Testing of PTC with trains that are not carrying passengers will be expanded to several other lines.

Applications for testing on other lines will occur after successful completion of the revenue service testing on the M&E, Smith said.

PTC came under fire in an Office of the State Auditors report released last month. That report found the cost to install PTC a had ballooned to $500 million and that NJ Transit had not exercised $9 million in liquidated damages against contractors.